I know i've seen cosplayers who do their own renditions of characters, but im wondering what everyone thinks of it? I mean ya, i shouldnt care what people think, but i dont want it to look like i half assed something because i wanted the costume to be unique or something.

For instance, i want to do a "Battle Ready" rendition of Dr Stein from Soul Eater.

Those are a few referance picture. Now im thinking of using a full length black trench coat instead of his Lab coat, and instead of white shoes, wearing a pair of knee high boots i own. Pic below

http://www.rivithead.com/products/medium/Reaper-30.jpg

Also i want to paint on a few more stitches onto my face, maybe 3 or 4 more. Im just wondering if any soul eater fans will still recognize me, or if people will think i half assed something because i wanted to be different. Opinions please! Thanks

benihime

10-14-2008, 03:04 PM

why not post this in the soul eater thread and ask them?

SailorAnime

10-14-2008, 07:03 PM

...or if people will think i half assed something because i wanted to be different....

This. It would take lots of sideways glances, but someone somewhere might recognize it as Stein. I wouldn't.

Gwiffen

10-14-2008, 09:09 PM

My personal opinion? For Stein, the white lab coat with stitches is one of his signature items really. Instead of giving him a black coat, you could just leave it off entirely to be more "battle ready" as he fought without his coat against Ragnarok. For shoes, if you don't want to go entirely accurate, at least don't wear shoes that stand out a lot like those. Then, it becomes incredibly obvious they're not the correct ones. In my opinion, some plain black dress shoes would do better than the ones you posted. Too many stitches on your face may be a little distracting also. But this is your cosplay and you should do whatever you'd like with it.

Schuldig_

10-15-2008, 08:22 AM

Each to his own. Though, anime characters are designed to be easily recognised - that's why they usually wear the same outfit all the time (which isn't exactly very realistic) and have those distintice hairdos. If you change those features, you might not be recognised. Personally, I'd rather change the minor details and keep the ones that make that character unique - but that's just me. You can obviously change a costume to your heart's content and still call it Stein, but you should probably prepare for people asking who you are. ;)